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Data Fabrication
Data fabrication is a violation of scholarly integrity that occurs when a researcher invents non-existent data. Because the scientific goal is to understand the world as it actually is, researchers have a duty to report their findings honestly and accurately. Therefore, they must never fabricate data, even if the actual findings contradict their hypotheses or expectations.
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Clinical Practice of Psychology
Psychology
Social Science
Empirical Science
Science
KPU
Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook
Related
Duplicate Data Publication
Data Sharing in Research
Confidentiality in Peer Review
Data Fabrication
Publication Credit
Plagiarism
Data Falsification
Self-Plagiarism
According to the APA Ethics Code, which of the following actions is strictly prohibited in order to maintain scholarly integrity?
To maintain scholarly integrity, a researcher may selectively omit a few contradictory data points from their final report, provided that the study's overall conclusion remains unchanged.
To maintain scholarly integrity, researchers must apply specific ethical principles when reporting and publishing their work. Match each researcher's action with the specific ethical principle it best illustrates.
A psychology research team is finalizing a manuscript for publication and must assign authorship credit according to the principles of scholarly integrity. Arrange the following individuals in order of their priority for authorship, from the person with the most significant intellectual contribution to the individual whose role does not justify authorship credit.
You are tasked with creating a comprehensive 'Scholarly Integrity Protocol' for a psychology research team to use during the publication process. Which of the following protocol designs most effectively synthesizes the APA Ethics Code's requirements for honest reporting with the accurate assignment of authorship credit?
Which of the following statements best explains the scientific rationale for why psychological researchers must maintain scholarly integrity under the APA Ethics Code?
A researcher argues that omitting 'messy' data points that contradict their hypothesis is acceptable because it allows the scientific community to focus on the most 'promising' discovery. In evaluating this justification, the researcher is violating scholarly integrity by failing to fulfill the fundamental duty of _____ reporting.
To maintain scholarly integrity, the APA Ethics Code outlines obligations that include strict prohibitions against data fabrication and _____.
A psychology researcher conducts an experiment on memory but finds that some data points do not support their hypothesis. Reasoning that the scientific goal is to discover how the world actually is and that these points are anomalous noise, they omit them from the final paper without disclosure. According to the APA Ethics Code's standards for scholarly integrity, this action is a violation of their ethical duties.
To maintain scholarly integrity during the publication process, researchers must evaluate and apply specific standards under the APA Ethics Code. Match each ethical obligation with the scenario that best represents a violation of that standard.
According to the APA Ethics Code, a researcher's obligation to maintain scholarly integrity during the publication process includes accurate assignment of authorship credit and strict prohibitions against which of the following practices?
When a researcher invents numbers for a study rather than reporting actual observations, they fail in their duty to describe the world as it actually is. This severe violation of scholarly integrity, which is explicitly prohibited by the APA Ethics Code alongside plagiarism, is known as data ____.
Arrange the following stages of a research project in chronological order to demonstrate how a research team applies the APA Ethics Code principles of scholarly integrity from initial data handling to final publication.
In the context of scholarly integrity, what is the primary scientific goal that obligates researchers to report their results honestly and accurately?
Which of the following scenarios best illustrates a researcher upholding scholarly integrity as defined by the APA Ethics Code?
Dr. Lin conducts an experiment on memory consolidation but struggles to recruit enough participants. Believing strongly that her theory is correct, she invents scores for ten non-existent participants and adds them to her final dataset to ensure her paper is accepted for publication. According to the APA Ethics Code's standards for scholarly integrity, which specific prohibition has Dr. Lin violated, and what is the primary reason this action is unethical?
Dr. Smith submits a manuscript on social conformity. In the paper's introduction, Dr. Smith incorporates a theoretical background section copied verbatim from another scientist's published work without providing any citation. Furthermore, Dr. Smith lists themselves as the sole author, placing a graduate student—who designed the study, performed all statistical analyses, and wrote the results section—only in the acknowledgments. Based on the APA Ethics Code's principles of scholarly integrity, how should these actions be analyzed?
An institutional review committee is evaluating a recent publication by a psychology researcher. The committee discovers that the researcher intentionally omitted a significant portion of the collected data because those specific responses contradicted their preferred hypothesis. In their defense, the researcher argues that the omitted data was 'noisy' and that removing it was necessary to present a clear, compelling narrative to the scientific community. Based on the APA Ethics Code's standards for scholarly integrity, which of the following is the most accurate evaluation of the researcher's defense?
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Value of Unexpected Results
Which of the following accurately describes data fabrication in scientific research?
A researcher whose actual study results contradict their hypothesis is justified in replacing those results with invented data that support the hypothesis, because the invented data represent a plausible scientific outcome.
In psychological research, the goal is to understand the world as it actually is. Match each research scenario with the specific analytical reason why it violates the duty to provide an accurate and honest record of empirical observations.
A psychology researcher is evaluating their professional obligations after a study yields findings that contradict their initial hypotheses. Arrange the following researcher considerations in order of their ethical importance, from the most fundamental scientific principle to the most unacceptable violation of research standards.
Imagine you are designing a new 'Research Integrity Protocol' for a psychology department to proactively minimize the risk of data fabrication. Which of the following system designs would be most effective at ensuring that all reported findings correspond to actual empirical observations?
A cognitive psychologist studying memory finds that their sample size is too small to achieve statistical power. Rather than continuing to recruit participants, the researcher creates 10 fake data entries for 'participants' who never actually took part in the study. This unethical practice of inventing non-existent data is called _____.
Because the scientific goal is to understand the world as it actually is, a researcher who invents non-existent data is committing a violation of scholarly integrity known as data _____.
Dr. Marcus conducts a study on social media use and loneliness. After collecting data from 40 participants, the results show no significant relationship — contradicting his hypothesis. Believing the true relationship probably exists but was obscured by his small sample, he adds 10 fictional participant entries before submission so that the analysis yields a significant correlation. Because Dr. Marcus genuinely believed the underlying pattern was real, his addition of fictional data does not constitute data fabrication.
A research methods instructor presents four researcher actions to students studying scholarly integrity. Match each action to the scholarly integrity category that best characterizes it.
A journal editor receives a manuscript in which the data look suspicious — the results are implausibly clean and the reported standard deviations are nearly identical across all conditions. The editor must evaluate the appropriate steps for investigating a potential case of data fabrication. Arrange the following actions in the order they should be carried out to uphold scholarly integrity.
Define data fabrication as a violation of scholarly integrity and explain why a researcher has an ethical duty to avoid it even when their results contradict their hypotheses.
Diagnose Dr. Miller's actions using the ethical principles of scholarly integrity. Explain what violation has occurred, why it is problematic for the goal of science, and what she should have done with the unexpected results instead.
A student researcher is preparing to write their final report, but they realize that their survey results completely contradict their initial hypothesis. To fix this, they consider generating a few fictional survey responses that support their expectations. In one to three sentences, apply the principle of scholarly integrity to explain why the student must not do this.